A quarterly review of the latest news from the world of High School and Higher Education
Graduate Unemployment Crisis
Alarming figures are emerging from western economies in the face of shifting labour markets. Fortune magazine pointed to recent US jobless figures indicating that, since 2015, young graduates- aged between 22 and 27- no longer enjoy higher employment rates than the overall workforce. This trend predates the advent of generative AI. Similarly in the UK almost half of all jobs lost since July 2024 have been under 25s, and youth unemployment is at its highest level (bar Covid), since 2015. Dire projections abound, and the problem is compounded by increasing numbers of graduates, with university entry for UK school leavers increasing from 25% in 2006, to over 35% in 2024.
Gen Z job crisis: Maybe there are just too many college graduates now | Fortune
It’s been a terrible year to graduate and find a job
OFSTED and Social Media
The UK’s Office for Standards in Education, OFSTED, has warned that Social Media is ‘clearly’ playing a role in everything from slipping attention spans to rising disrespect in classrooms– pushing teachers out of the profession. Chief Inspector Sir Martyn Oliver repeated his view that schools should provide a break from mobile phones. OFSTED’s main area of concern is the classroom, with rising levels of exclusions and suspensions for disruptive behaviour and ‘children falling out of step with the expectations of school life’. Currently only 9% of UK schools ask for phones to be handed in. Growing parental pressure may push the Government toward tighter, potentially statutory, phone restrictions in schools.
USA H-IB Visa additional $100,000 Fee
In October the USA added a $100,000 fee on new H-IB visas for highly qualified people, which previously cost around 7,000. The new fee will greatly impact employers’ ability to recruit highly educated foreign workers to the United States. Tech companies are the biggest users of H-IB visas, with educational services accounting for 7%. India provided the most H-1B beneficiaries, with 283,397 individuals, 71% of the total, followed by Chinese nationals at just over 11%. Little information was available about possible exemptions for universities and schools struggling to fill STEM vacancies. One other likely impact of the hike is to deter international students who will see less chance of employment after graduation.
H-1B Visas Are the Main Pathway for Indian Tech Talent | Statista
Changes to H-1B Visa: What You Need to Know – American Immigration Council
Shrinking Dutch Universities
A steep fall in international student numbers in universities in the Netherlands has sparked alarm bells across the sector. At 3.5% overall, the drop is steeper than expected. A representative for Universities of the Netherlands, summarised the shortfall: “Demographic shrinkage among Dutch school-leavers and the continued fall in international intake were anticipated, but the combined pace of decline is sharper than foreseen.” The most significant reduction, of 5%, occurred amongst students from European countries. Contributing factors include political pressure to limit international students by reducing the number of courses taught in English, scrapping of foundation courses, dire warnings about housing shortages added to a general perception of lack of welcome.
Top Ranking Arab Universities
The Times Higher Education Arab University rankings for 2026 show Saudi Arabia and the UAE dominating with over three quarters of the institutions ranked in the top 20; Saudi with nine and UAE with seven. KAUST, a post-graduate only institution in Thuwal, and the first mixed-gender campus in Saudi Arabia, topped the rankings for the second year in a row. Second was King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, and third was Qatar University.
End of the Big Four
The dominance of the ‘Big Four’ of university destinations: the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, is shifting. A dramatic decline in numbers of international students in Canada is one contributing factor, with 82% of unis having reported plummeting international undergraduate student numbers. Shrinking figures in Canada, USA and Australia, leave several universities facing budget cuts and staff redundancies. Meanwhile, as Germany and Spain push to increase international student numbers and Asian and Middle Eastern countries build up their higher education investment and climb the rankings, the picture is becoming more diverse and the idea of four dominant nations, clearly outdated.
Is Canada still in the ‘big four’ overseas student recruiters?
Trump and International Student Enrolments
The changes to international student recruitment to US universities will be better understood by the end of the 2025-6 application cycle. However, international first-time enrolments in Fall ‘25 appear to be down by 17% based on partial releases by the Institute of International Education. 57% of 825 institutions reported decreases in new enrolments from abroad- mainly due to student visa and travel restrictions. The picture remains confused however, with Trump backtracking, recently stating on Fox News that ‘“It’s not that I want them, but I view it as a business,” and moaning that draconian cuts to international students could “destroy our entire university and college system.”
Scholars Emerge from a Living Nightmare
Thirty-four Palestinian students from Gaza, with fully-funded scholarships to UK universities, arrived on 6 hour flights taking them on ‘a surreal journey from devastation to opportunity”. Leaving behind a homeland in a state of near total destruction, their arrival was the culmination of months of campaigning by British politicians, academics and activists who hope that others will follow. Two women Phd scholars, with places at the London School of Tropical Medicine and University of Glasgow, declined to travel on being told that their spouses and children, holding visas to UK as dependents, were refused permission to leave, leaving the mothers to make the desperately sad decision to stay behind.
Ominous Restrictions on UK Uni Acceptances
Some UK universities have suspended applications from students from Afghanistan while others have tightened restrictions, worried that the Home Office will revoke licenses for institutions engaged in “risky” recruitment. Bournemouth and University of Buckingham have stopped accepting applications from Afghanistan, and Nottingham Trent has set them an earlier deadline, to avoid possibility of visa delays meaning places go unfilled. The UK government has clarified that Universities will be penalised if visas are refused, students don’t enrol on courses, or drop out halfway through. Students going on to claim asylum will also damage a university’s standing with the Home Office.
UK Universities block Afghan students as visa rules tighten
Kenyan Ghost Writers
The Shadow Scholars documentary by Eloïse King exposes the billion-dollar industry of academic ghostwriting. It follows Professor Kingori from Oxford University travelling around Kenya interviewing highly educated but underemployed Kenyans who write essays for Western students. Applying under Western pseudonyms, they are then contracted to ghostwrite essays, assignments and even dissertations for students across the world. The Kenyan essay writers describe how they could not find jobs and research opportunities, despite writing essays for students at institutions including Oxford. An estimated 37 million students worldwide have benefited from so-called essay mills.
The academic cheating industry | BFI
Why Populists Target Universities
Michael Ignatieff, Professor at the Central European University, expelled from Hungary in 2019, claimed in a recent speech that “authoritarian populists have grasped the crucial strategic importance of universities … which gives them the possibility of ideological control of a society as a whole.” Ignatieff described Victor Orban, the right wing populist leader of Hungary as ‘the master’. One follower is Stephen Miller, a key adviser to President Trump and leading efforts to exert political control over U.S. universities. He considers higher education institutions, particularly elite ones like Harvard, as “incubators of discrimination” and “bastions of anti-conservative forces”.
